Health bosses say they have cancelled more than 300 operations at Leicester’s hospitals due to a spike in admissions over Christmas.

Pressure on medics at Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester General Hospital and Glenfield Hospital has prompted the NHS trust that runs them to declare it is at Operational Pressures Escalation Level 4 (Opel4), which means it is at the highest level of pressure and indicates there is “increased potential” for patient safety to be at risk.

To cope, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) managers called off 302 operation between December 28 and the end of Tuesday.

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Head of policy at the Patients Association John Kell said: “NHS England’s decision to defer elective surgery throughout January and authorise the use of mixed sex wards is a sign of how hard winter pressures are hitting the NHS this year. Combined with regular first-hand reports of worsening conditions in hospitals, including growing numbers of patients being treated on trolleys in corridors, it is clear how badly patients are losing out.

“Ministers must be accountable for this winter’s crisis.

“The policy decisions that have left the NHS in this position are taken by the Government, and it is ministers who are directly accountable to Parliament, and to patients when they vote at elections.

“It has long been obvious that all but the very mildest winter pressures would stretch the NHS mightily, and so it has proved.

“Objectively, the NHS’s performance and offer to patients are stronger now than they were 15 years ago or more, but the experiences of patients at times like this do not reflect that.

Jon Ashworth

Shadow health secretary and Leicester South MP Jon Ashworth said: “The NHS is now in a serious crisis.

“We have seen hospital taking to Twitter and Facebook pleading for staff to some in because they are in such dire straights.

“It’s because of seven or eight years of Tory under-funding.”

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust's interim chief operating officer Eileen Doyle said: “We have been extremely busy since Christmas with admission to our hospitals and as a result we have had to cancel some planned operations. We absolutely know that this is frustrating and worrying for those people affected and we hate to do it.

“It is not something we do lightly and if we have to cancel an operation it is because we are prioritising emergency and urgent patients.

“We have to make the decision between ‘life saving’ and not immediately life threatening or routine operations, which is why cancellations only affect patients having planned surgery.

“We will be contacting patients to rebook their surgery as soon as possible and we sincerely apologise for the distress this will have caused patients and their families.”